The present invention pertains to a door mount assembly for mounting a door panel to a storage rack arrangement. More particularly, the invention pertains to a self-closing, reversible hinge mounting assembly for pivotally mounting a door to a storage rack arrangement.
A wide variety of storage systems, such as shelves, racks, and the like are used in both retail and wholesale trades for storing and displaying items for sale. One common type of heavy-duty shelf system that is used, particularly in home improvement centers, and xe2x80x9cwarehouse-clubxe2x80x9d types of establishments is commonly referred to as a pallet rack.
Such storage systems typically include vertical risers or posts for supporting one or more shelves. The shelves generally span the area between the vertical posts and are primarily used to store consumer accessible items, or to store merchandise stock. To this end, doors or covers can be mounted in front of these storage shelves in order to deter consumer access or to prevent what might otherwise be an unsightly or unaesthetically appealing storage arrangement of merchandise. Additionally, these doors can be used as a type of signage for displaying product or service advertisements, as well as other useful information.
Known door mount systems suffer from numerous drawbacks. First, such systems are generally installation intensive, requiring numerous parts and thus considerable labor and cost to install. In addition, such systems often include a large number of small parts, such as hinges, nuts, bolts and the like, which can be lost or misplaced. Moreover, many hinge assemblies are limited in that they are not reversible meaning that they can only be mounted to either the right or left posts. This requires the extra feature of xe2x80x9cseparatexe2x80x9d left-only and right-only post hinges.
Further, many of the self-closing types of hinges use springs and the like to return the door to a closed position. This also has its drawbacks or disadvantages in that springs can stretch or break, thus requiring service or replacement. In addition, such spring type hinges may not permit positioning the door in a xe2x80x9cheld-openxe2x80x9d position while retaining a self-closing feature.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a hinge assembly for pivotally mounting doors to a storage rack. It is desirable that such hinge assembly is xe2x80x9cself-closingxe2x80x9d but permits positioning the door in a xe2x80x9cheld-openxe2x80x9d position when it is fully opened. More desirably, such a hinge assembly can be reversibly installed on either the right post or the left post as desired, enabling the connected door to open outwardly in opposing directions.
A hinge mounting assembly for an associated door panel is used for mounting to a storage rack. The rack generally includes at least one post having a front face and a side face. The front face has slots therein and the door panel generally has at least one bore defined therein.
The hinge mounting assembly comprises a post plate mountable to the post. The post plate includes a base portion for positioning adjacent to the front face of the post, a post return for positioning adjacent to a side face of the post, and a body. The base portion has at least one post lock extending generally outwardly therefrom and is configured to be inserted into the post slots. The post lock has a lip portion for securely locking the post plate to the post slot. The body has a hinge portion with a first end and a second end. The first end has first and second post bearing surfaces and an intermediate helically extending surface between the first and second post bearing surfaces.
The door clamping member is pivotally mounted to the post plate. The door clamping member has a body, a hinge post, a tongue support and at least one locking tab. The locking tab extends in a generally transverse direction from the body for engagement with a first surface of the panel. The locking tab includes an opening and a finger that extends into the opening and is configured for insertion into the bore in the panel.
The tongue support extends generally outwardly from the body for providing an abutting surface with a second surface of the panel. The tongue support and locking tabs cooperate with one another to provide secure mounting of the door panel. The hinge post has a first clamp bearing surface, a second clamp bearing surface and a helically extending clamp bearing surface between the first and second clamp bearing surfaces. The hinge mount assembly includes a hinge pin pivotally connecting the post plate and the door clamping member.
When the hinge mounting assembly is in an open position, the second clamp bearing surface bears on the first post bearing surface and when in a closed position the second clamp bearing surface bears on the second post bearing surface. When the hinge mount assembly is in an intermediate position between the open and closed positions, the post helical surface and clamp helical surface slide relative to each other such that the hinge assembly tends to move to the closed position.
In a preferred embodiment the base portion has two post locks for insertion into respective post slots. In another embodiment, door clamping member has two locking tabs for engagement with the first surface of the panel. In yet another embodiment, the finger includes a detent portion for insertion into the bore in the panel.
In still another embodiment, the second end of the post plate body includes first post and second post bearing surfaces and an intermediate helically extending surface between the first and second post bearing surfaces. In yet another embodiment, the door clamping member has two hinge posts positioned at respective first and second ends of the door clamping member for engagement with the respective first and second ends of the post plate body so as to enable the hinge mounting assembly to be reversibly pivoted.
These and other features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following detailed description, in conjunction with the appended claims.